More recently, Trijicon has produced an RMR Type 2 series of reflex optics. Basically, a 2nd generation, iteration or the 2nd coming of their Ruggedized Miniature Reflex with subtle improvements and changes. We at TFB wanted to dive in and take a closer look for ourselves. In this review, I mounted an  RMR® Type 2 Adjustable LED Sight – 6.5 MOA Red Dot (RM07) to a Custom Glock pistol; one that I built for myself for league shooting, recreation and everything tacti-cool.

During my trip to Germany last week, I took a special trip up to Hamburg, Germany to visit Zib Militaria. Zib is a surplus dealer in some rare gun parts. Heiko, the owner, has acquired some rare machine gun parts as well as stock piled a bunch of HK goodies. Among them are piles of HK 416 and 417 parts along with guns minus the barrels and bolts. This is due to the laws regarding firearm components in Germany. While I was there, I learned that Brownells has bought a majority these components and is planning to import them for sale in the US.

The catalog of the upcoming Rock Island April 2018 Premiere Firearms Auction is already published. It is always interesting to look through their catalog and see what lots are consigned because this is one of the USA’s biggest firearms auctions and some of the most unusual and rare guns of the world are sold through it. I picked five firearms from the catalog which are either extremely rare or unusual. The names of the guns are linked to the corresponding Rock Island Auction page. The list goes in no particular order.

Program Executive Officer (PEO) Soldier out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia recently tweeted an image depicting U.S. Army Brigadier General Anthony Potts (currently commanding PEO Soldier) on the test range firing a test rifle apart of “emerging technologies for Next Generation Squad Weapon” as spelled out in the tweet.

Every year Smith & Wesson hosts a very unique fundraising event that has a two-fold purpose. For one, it helps bring awareness to big game hunting, and more importantly, bringing your harvest to the dinner table in delicious ways. When people go hunting, there are a lot more things you can do than just grind your entire game into beef jerky, and they prove that with the annual Smith & Wesson Game Dinner. Secondly, this Game Dinner raises funding for the Pioneer Valley USO in a BIG way. This year over $34,000 was raised for the Pioneer Valley USO which is tremendous!

Federal Premium has garnered a strong reputation for quality with a lot of their lines of ammunition, but one resoundingly stands out from the others. Their HST hollow-point rounds for various handgun calibers are deployed by consumers and law enforcement the world over. Now to add to that list will be multiple agencies of the United States Homeland Security.

Owning a Modern Sporting Rifle  behind enemy lines in California is quite a responsibility these days. As if training and rangetime in and of itself isn’t a big enough task for a rookie, I also have to plan my rifle conversion over to featureless. With that said, I am always on the lookout for the new products and am quite intrigued with my latest find: an AR grip from Ledesma Arms.

HERA Arms in Germany have been busy developing new products and refining old ones. At IWA in Germany they will display all news in full force and you can get a glimpse of what’s coming below.

Smith & Wesson’s parent company, American Outdoor Brands Corporation, released its Third Quarter Fiscal 2018 Financial Results on 1st March announcing a substantial fall in sales. The company expects ‘flattish’ revenues from the firearms sector for at least the next 12 to 18 months.

Almost exactly twenty years ago to the day, I stepped into Springfield Armory headquarters for the first time for a behind-the-scenes look at the custom shop and the master gunsmiths that hand fit parts for their high-end 1911s. Of course, a must see on the tour was anything marked with TRP, Operator or Professional – if it made the cut for the FBI’s SWAT and HRT teams, I needed to see the magic that goes into the gunsmithing process. Two decades later, Springfield is releasing two new versions of their popular custom 1911 – a 9mm Operator and a 9mm Professional.

Unfortunately, an inevitable result of any large-scale military counter-insurgency operation are unintended, innocent civilian casualties otherwise known as collateral damage. The questions stated to military planners are not “If” but instead “When”. How any modern Infantry forces works through this sort of preparation can sometimes determine the difference between winning and losing against a determined insurgency of any time.

Springfield Armory has been on a tear the last year with new iterations of the SAINT series of AR-15 firearms. First, Springfield Armory introduced the original SAINT model in October of 2016. They then followed up with an M-LOK free-float handguard version to many people’s delight. We at TFB then followed up with a thorough review of the SAINT M-LOK by our rifle savy and intelligent writer Thomas Gomez. The next in line for Springfield Armory was a Flat Dark Earth (FDE) variant of the original Keymod model. After that was a Cali-compliant version of the SAINT M-LOK that featured a Survivor System Stock. Then, I had the personal pleasure of seeing the unveiling of the SAINT AR-15 Pistol last November. The final firearm to come into the fold was a more premium rendition with the SAINT Edge.

FJ Feddersen has been in the barrel manufacturing business for almost 40 years. Located in East Tennessee since 2000, the manufacturing facility features top-of-the-line machinery. Mills, lathes, CNC machines, heat-treating ovens, and more fill the 17,500 square foot shop floor.

Federal Premium is one of the largest ammunition manufacturers throughout the world and is often one of the most sought after as well. From weekend range warriors to the men and women that serve and protect our country, Federal Premium makes ammunition for everybody. Very recently they were awarded a domestic ammunition contract to supply the US Naval Surface Warfare Center – Crane Divison, operated under the U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command. This ammunition contract was in the amount of $20 Million over the course of 5 years. The contract begins this year in 2018 and they are expected to deliver .40 S&W frangible rounds, specifically with Federal Premium’s lead-free Catalyst high-performance primer.

Thanks for stopping by TFB’s Silencer Saturday, where the the loudest noises are voices in your head telling you to finally buy a suppressor. Today we will focus on demystifying the process of purchasing and transferring National Firearms Act (NFA) controlled firearms. Strange as it is, the simple tube on the end of all your friend’s guns is by law considered a firearm.

We recently wrote about Enhanced Tactical Arms with their new grip design at SHOT 2018. But during the show, we were able to get a behind the scenes look at the small companies efforts to replicate the developmental history of the M4 carbine from the early beginnings in the Vietnam War, until today with the SOMOD Block II program and subsequent H&K 416 use in SOCOM. The collection has been featured in Larry Vicker’s AR15 Guide.

Following the news that  Dick’s Sporting Goods would cease selling AR-15s and raise the minimum age to purchase a firearm, Walmart have also announced their decision to raise their minimum purchasing age to 21.

Dick’s Sporting Goods, a major firearms dealer with 675 stores in the U.S., has decided to end the sale of Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) – often incorrectly referred to as ‘assault rifles’ – as well as “high capacity” ammunition magazines in all of its retail outlets. The retail giant will also stop selling firearms of any type to individuals under the age of 21. Currently, federal regulations allow for the sale of rifles and shotguns to buyers over the age of 18, whereas the minimum age to purchase a handgun is 21.

During SHOT Show 2018, I asked Armalite, “What’s new for SHOW 2018?” While many companies brought new projects or talked about pending projects in the works, Armalite gave me an unexpected answer.

More than 30 years ago, Greg Latka, the founder of GSL Technology, decided to switch gears from a focus primarily on the aerospace industry towards following his passion – designing and building suppressors and other firearm parts. Ever since then, Latka and GSL engineered and manufactured some of the most popular silencer models sold in U.S. history, putting quiet combinations in the hands of tens of thousands of shooters across the country. If you’ve ever been to a stocking FFL/SOT NFA dealer, chances are you’ve seen or even held a GSL build.

Acadian Armament, a Louisiana based suppressor manufacturer, was chosen last year to supply silencers to Lafayette Parish Sheriffs Office for field and tactical team use. The company focuses on two technologies to reduce the sound signature from firearms: Two Stage Suppression and a Parallel Path Baffle system. Both are explained in more detail below.

With the closing ceremonies only a few days away, the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea is drawing to a end. Unfortunately, for those who don’t run in specific snow-shooting-sports circles, the Winter Games that come around every four years is our only chance to watch the Biathlon – a cross country skiing event featuring rimfire rifle target shooting on special closed courses.

Earlier today, news began to trickle through online forums and social media platforms that retail giant Optics Planet had stopped selling magazines with a capacity over 10 rounds. With the internet being, well, the internet, we decided to have a look for ourselves. A cursory search of Optics Planet’s site revealed a couple of noteworthy concerns:

Peterson Cartridge Company is a manufacturer of brass casings for handloaders that are primarily designed for and used by long-distance shooters. Although they are a smaller company based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania they produce a very healthy amount of Peterson Match Grade Brass for consumers.

After long decades of mainly using pistols locally made by Forjas Taurus, Brazilian LE agencies have been turning their attention to products from overseas manufacturers, mainly in the wake of multiple reports of technical/safety issues with the “bull brand” weapons. It should be recalled that IMBEL – Indústria de Material Bélico do Brasil has been a longtime supplier of pistols for the armed forces and  some police forces, but, somehow, their single-action M1911-based guns are not so popular in the local LE scenario, although some models have been adopted by local agencies.

Black Aces Tactical is always known for pushing the envelope on edgy, high curb appeal configurations and accessories for shotguns. Their most recent addition to their line-up though takes it back to the old school. Starting in the 1st week of March, Black Aces Tactical will begin shipping Hand Finished Walnut Furniture that will accent the wildly popular Mossberg Shockwave.

Badger Ordnance has two pretty unique products that came out this year that will suit black gun enthusiasts as well as bolt-action rifle shooters. One is a Condition 1 Safety Selector for AR-15s while the other is an M-LOK Rail that can be inletted into bolt-action rifle stocks to allow for the addition of M-LOK accessories.

As we roll into that giant sunset in the SHOT Show sky, let’s take a second to review some of the most significant handguns announced a few weeks ago. As a sign of the times, the top requested pistol is basically an MP5 without a stock. Both long rumored and long awaited, the PTR 9C and 9CT is a quality American made roller delayed firearm with an accessible price point. Take a look at the rest of our Top Five list and let us know your thoughts.

Electronics manufacturing giant Samsung is apparently set to break into the defense and consumer level weapons industry with a new take on firearms design. Normally focused on their mobile phone and flat screen display product lines, the South Korean conglomerate seems to be developing handheld armament that diverges from typical modern-day design. Apparently not based on the deflaguration powders inside of metal cartridges meant to push a projectile down and out of a barrel, the new Samsung design may incorporate a different type of energy generator as a means of lethality. Of course, with only a few leaked images of the redesign, we are mostly left with conjecture rather than definitive conclusions.

Now more than a week has passed since SHOT 2018, and we at TFB are finally recuperating from what is most likely the busiest single week that the entire team will have all year. With SHOT Show over, we can finally go back to the boring business of gun writing and video making. But while the show is still fresh on our minds, I think it is important to take a second and look at some of the trends and big product pushes that occurred during the show.